Corset



(ModeL) S. HOUGHTON.

, CORSET.

No. 247,565. Patented Sept. 27,1881.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STILLMAN HOUGHTON, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

00 RS ET.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 247,565, dated September 27, 1881.

Application filed May 14, 1881.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, STLLLMAN HOUGHTON, of the city and county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Corsets; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanyin g drawings, of which Figure 1 is a back view of a corset provided with myinvention. Fig. 2 is an inner side view of the back, showing thelacing-guides of the inner surface of one of the portions connected by a lacing and edge loops, as hereinafter explained. Fig. 3 is a view, on an enlarged scale, of portions of the corset, with their edge loops and lacing.

One object of my inyention is to dispense with eyelets or lacing-holes, as usually arranged in the two portions of a corsetto be connected by a lacing. g

In carrying out my invention I provide each of the corset portions A B to be so laced with a series of flexible wide loops, to, to project from its inner edge, they being at equal distances asunder, and those of each portion being so arranged with respect to those of the fellow portion that when the two portions are brought together edge to edge the loops of each shall extend into and substantially fill the spaces between the loops of the other. Through both sets of these loops a lacing, b, is run upward, it being arranged through the loop of one set, and thence through the next loop of the opposite set, in manner as shown, after which such lacing is extended through a series of guides or loops, 0, projecting from one of the portions A B-that is, from its inner surface, near the edge, as shown.

On seizing one or each of the parts of the lacing that project below the portions AB,

and pulling such downward, the said portions A B may be drawn toward each other to the extent that may be necessary to cause the corset to properly fit the body or part thereof encompassed by it.

From the above it will be seen that the lacing does not lap on either of the said parts A B, as it would were it carried through eyelets arranged therein, and as a consequence it does not project beyond such parts, so as to be read- (Model) ily worn or injured by the clothing. By dispensing with eyelets the occasional dropping out or loss of one or more, and the wear of the lacing by them, is avoided, and, besides, there are no metallic surfaces to become rusted or corroded by the perspiration or moisture of the body of the wearer of the article.

The edge loops enable the wearer of the corset to fit it closer at the waist than at the top or bottom of it, and to regulate the distance apart of the two portions, as may be required at top or bottom or the waist, to enable them to lit to the best advantage.

The edge loops of each portion, by fitting into and filling, or substantially filling, the spaces between the edge loops of the fellow portion, when the two portions are drawn together, keep each portion in place or prevent either from working up or down, and they also make a practically close joint between the portions. Being flexible, they conform to the movement of the wearer of the corset, and do not cut or wear her clothing while the corset may be in use.

I am aware that it is not new to make a corset with friction-rollers, and metallic holders therefor adapted to the edges of its two lacing portions, such holders being much narrower than the spaces between them, such being as shown in the British Patent No. 351 for 1865. 1 am also aware that it is not new to make each lacing portion of a corset with a double flap and with rollers arranged at intervals between the flaps, such being as shown in the United States Patent No. 232,420, all of which differ essentially from my invention.

My invention applies to corsets that have steels or ribs in them, as well as those which are without such and by the trade are usually termed waists.

I do not claim any form of double fiapsuch, for example, as that shown in United States Patent No. 232,420; nor do I claim or use any form of wheel or pulley in-connection with a lacing; nor metal plates sewed to the edges of the corset and united by a wire or needle, as shown in the French patent of Banduceau; nor bands and pulleys, as shown in English Patent No. 351 of 1865, and in Josselins French patent.

I claim as my improvement in a corset as lacing guide-loops 0, arranged on t he inner follows: surface and near the edge of one of such por- [O In a corset, the portions A 13, having flexitions, substantially as shown and described. ble lacing-loops a projecting from their ad ja- STILLMAN HOUGHTON 5 cent edges, and so arranged that when the v edges are brought together the loops of one Witnesses: portion shall fit into the spaces between the HERBERT O. HOUGHTON, loops of the other portion, in combination with G. \V. VVOOD. 

